Sometimes you go to a gig and things don’t happen quite how you imagine they will.

Take for example gigs at The Beinn Inn in Glenfarg. Lying about half way between Kinross and Perth this old coaching inn always felt more remote than it actually was. In those days (early 2000s) it was run by David Mundell who brought to the hotel musicians who were well known in the 60s and 70s (This Scotsman article will give you a flavour of the place). The room couldn’t have held more than 100 people but you couldn’t deny the atmosphere. It was here that I would experience quite the oddest gig of my entire life courtesy of Glenn Tilbrook, the lead singer/songwriter of the band Squeeze.

It must have been about halfway through the set when he, evil grin on face, said…

“Right everybody…follow me!”

So out the door of the bar we ambled and gathered in the car park. Now, what you need to know is that the Beinn Inn sits in the middle of nowhere at a road junction and given the time of year it was now pitch black outside.

Mr Tilbrook hoisted his guitar and strummed the opening bars of the well known Squeeze song “Goodbye Girl”.

I have to admit it was very atmospheric, this open air addition to the concert. The audience was now beginning to resemble a bunch of rowdy carol singers (of questionable sobriety) all endeavouring to sing along. Prior knowledge of the words appeared to be optional. It was then the party really took off.

“Let’s go!” he shouted.

And off into the night up the minor country road he strolled still playing “Goodbye Girl” full blast! We all sort of looked at each other, then thought “What the hell!” and set off after our very own pied piper.

You will be very pleased to know that, for the duration of our little excursion, there was a complete absence of vehicular traffic…although possibly not as pleased as we were. Ironically I downloaded “Goodbye Girl” from a Squeeze compilation album called…

It was an excellent night Helen. Fortunately the Beinn Inn is so far away from any other houses that it would have taken some time to get anywhere near them. On the other hand we were a road traffic accident looking for a place to happen!

Mr Tilbrook, a huge talent, distinctive voice and the Squeeze greatest hits album was a regular play in my youth and still is. Love to see him live, he’s very good apparently as this seems to prove. Loved listening to that track for the first time in a while

He was very good Andy but, for me, his later stuff has little appeal. It is in the same style but without the more straightforward melodies of the Squeeze days. To be fair he mostly played Squeeze greatest hits which was a clear crowd pleaser.

Saw Squeeze play in Glasgow a few years back – first tour after re-forming. Discovered I had an odd problem with my hearing at that gig. I couldn’t separate sounds for some reason and as a result could only hear what could best be described as the soundtrack to a horror film that only included the parts where something nasty was about to happen/was happening! Very, very weird…and horrible.

I saw Squeeze not so long ago, on one of their reunion tours. Great night out. To me they belong firmly in a roll-call of distinctly English modern song-writing – The Kinks, Madness, Ian Dury, Blur – actually that seems a London-centric list which I didn’t realise until I wrote it down. Hmmm – there must be more Northern, and Welsh and Scottish tunesmiths who’ve plowed their own furrow in an essentially American genre? The Proclaimers spring to mind, but I see that somebody has already commented disapprovingly about them.

Never listened to them Mark but will remedy that. Scottish-wise I would immediately think of Deacon Blue.

I think the 80s brought a lot of Scottish bands into that categories but very rarely “headliners” like those in your own list. Scottish artists tended to fall into the cult category. eg The Incredible String Band, Donovan, The Blue Nile, The Associates, The Beta Band. We do quirky rather well here.